Southern was not made chairman of the executive committee, and she resigned her post as department chairman in August 1979.

At the time, a frustrated Southern said she did not understand how the department could function with both an executive committee and a chairman. She said the administration had not involved her in crucial policy decisions during her absence, and left the chairmanship "bewildered" and somewhat bitter.

Looking back today, she says she feels that "the administration, instead of supporting me, supported the junior faculty." At the time, students speculated that Southern's resignation stemmed from friction between her and the junior faculty.

Seven years later, Southern remains uneasy in talking about the brouhaha surrounding her departure as chairman. But, she says, the story had a "positive ending."

"Because of the attention that was called to the plight of the Afro-Am Studies Department, the administration really made a serious effort to recruit more Black faculty." From that effort, she says, came Professor Nathan Huggins.

Nonetheless, Afro-Am today does not enjoy the same popularity it once did. When Southern leaves, the department will have only two senior faculty members and fewer than 10 concentrators. When Southern came to Harvard, she says, there were many more Blacks on the faculty. "They were junior faculty, but, nevertheless, it suggested that certainly there was something to be said for the development of our program in Afro-American history and culture, and now we have so few Blacks. We kind of rattle around."

The University each year reviews its affirmative action policies. This review "is done in part to remind ourselves of the need for continued commitment to recruiting women and minority scholars to our faculty," says Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence. However, a recent Harvard study found that the University underuses the pool of qualified minority and women scholars in the majority of academic fields.

SINCE ACCEPTING TENURE here, Southern has written three books and is finishing a fourth. She praises the Harvard environment as one conducive to, and providing materials for, dedicated scholarship. Her publications include The Buxheim Organ Book (1963), Anonymous Pieces in the Manuscript El Escorial (1981), The Music of Black Americans: A History (2nd ed. 1983), and Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (1982). She is also the co-founder and editor, with her husband, of the journal "The Black Perspective in Music," which boasts a 1000-person circulation reaching scholars from America to China to Africa.

Southern's achievements in the field of ethno-musicology have prompted some scholars, including Music Department Chairman Lewis H. Lockwood, to call Southern "certainly the leading scholar in the United States in the field of Afro-American music."

Both Southern and office-mate Rulan C. Pian, professor of East Asian languages and civilizations and of music, say they believe the Music Department to be more democratic than many other departments that have a higher proportion of men. "I think the Music Department is one of the friendliest departments toward women professors and minority professors. We have three women. There is no other department like it," Pian says.

But, says Southern, the college music departments, including Harvard's, still tend to devalue non-European music. "So you really have to be on your own," she says.

SOUTHERN BELIEVES THAT being the only female Black senior faculty member has strengthened her resolve to "document the history of my people within the context of Black culture."

"I have learned at Harvard not to pay attention to what others might say. You cannot really afford to listen to how others might criticize you, or they might feel your work is unimportant," Southern notes.

While at Harvard, Southern has served on the 19-member Faculty Council, the faculty's executive steering committee, and on the general studies committee. She has also instituted a junior faculty study group focussing on 19th-century Black culture. The professor says she has found it difficult at Harvard to find a ready-made group of senior female faculty with whom she could socialize.

History and Science Chairman Barbara G. Rosenkrantz says she has not experienced similar feelings of alienation as a result of her status as a senior woman in a predominantly male faculty. But, she says, what Southern has to say is important. "I think Eileen Southern has had a very different experience from others," Rosenkrantz notes.